Vindicated

by clothsofheaven24

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Thank you, Oliver for being my beta and curing my bad case of writer's block. This story would not have been possible without you.

Disclaimer:

This story was inspired by the song Vindicated by Dashboard Confessional.

You all know that I don't own the Harry Potter characters (JKR does). But if I did, something like this would happen to them...

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White light poured in through the arched windows of Hogwarts castle, filling the corridors and classrooms with pure morning sunlight.

Luna Lovegood walked the journey from the Ravenclaw common room to the Great Hall with bare feet; her shoes had been stolen again.

The stone floor was cold on her feet, but she did not seem to mind or notice. Her head was bowed as she read from a book, hardly observing where she was going.

A large, tight-knit group of her Ravenclaw peers overtook her, muttering and sniggering at her expense.

Luna did not pay them any attention. She simply turned a page over and continued to read.

"Lost your shoes again, Loony?" someone from the group called over their shoulder at her.

The others laughed in a similar, deliberate way.

Luna looked up from her book and smiled at them briefly before turning back to her reading.

She knew they had hidden her shoes behind the statue of Boris the Bewildered.

It wasn't by telepathy or an Inner Eye that she knew this. The group had simply made fun of her for reading her copy of The Quibbler upside down and accidently putting her shoes on the wrong feet the other day.

The idea of hiding said shoes behind a statue of a wizard with his gloves on the wrong hands appealed to their mean sense of humour.

They have crystal auras, you see. They constantly change colours to match and conform to those of the people around them, mostly concerned with popularity and the approval of others.

They most certainly weren't compatible with her magenta aura. She did not mind that she was a loner, unique in every way.

She believed in herself and her unconventional ideas. She did not care about what other people thought of her.

What they think of me is none of my business, she told herself as she turned into the Great Hall, resolving to retrieve her shoes after breakfast.

As she made her way over to the Ravenclaw table, she was distracted by a flurry of bright orange.

Ron Weasley had whipped out of his chair and was squaring himself up to Draco Malfoy.

Luna, becoming curious, changed her direction and began to head over to the dispute.

At the Gryffindor table...

"Where were you last night?" Ron asked Harry for the twentieth time that morning.

"You weren't in the common room or in your dormitory when we got back from our meeting," Hermione joined in, persistent also.

Harry ignored them and eyed the food in front of him. "Pass the kippers please."

"Did you even finish your essay?" Hermione continued to press, irritably reaching for the kippers as he had requested.

Before she touched the plate, however, something landed on it with a small, soft thump.

"Here's your shirt, Potter," came the cool voice of Draco Malfoy.

Hermione looked behind Harry to where Malfoy was standing, expecting to find a large sneer on his face.

She was shocked when she saw he was grinning instead.

This detail seemed to go unnoticed by Ron, who jumped out of his chair and looked like he was ready to leap across the table and attack Malfoy to the floor.

"Not this again," he spat angrily. "That shirt could not possibly be Harry's this time."

"Still think you know every single item of clothing Potter owns, I see," Draco quipped, grin not fading.

He was moving closer towards Harry now, Hermione noticed. Harry noticed as well, but didn't seem to mind.

Hermione blinked. Was Harry even leaning towards Malfoy?

Her question was answered when Malfoy put his hand on Harry's shoulder and Harry didn't flinch. He grinned in the same way as Malfoy and looked up at him happily.

"What the-" Ron began, but Luna Lovegood had arrived, standing uncomfortably close to him.

"I thought it was your hair, Ron," she said vaguely, "but I was mistaken."

"Luna, we're kind of in the middle of some-"

"I'm glad your auras have been fixed," she said, turning to Harry and Malfoy. "They are back to orange again."

Their grins did not fade when their eyes meet with hers. Ron and Hermione, on the other hand, were frowning in uncertainty.

"You thought I was crazy at first," she continued, her radish earrings swinging slightly as she nodded her head during her recollection, "but I knew intercourse would begin the healing process. Your auras really were becoming dangerous with all the sexual tension, you know."

"Are you saying they had sex?" exclaimed Ron, his face almost becoming a darker red than Harry's and Malfoy's previous auras.

Luna did not answer him. She merely smiled back at Harry and Malfoy.

"Thanks, Luna," Harry said to her. "I guess we should have listened to you from the start."

"It would have saved us a lot of hassle," Draco agreed.

"No problem, Harry, Draco," she replied, turning away from them and leaving for the Ravenclaw table.

Ron and Hermione were gaping in shock; Romilda Vane and her friends were staring enviously at Malfoy's hand on Harry's shoulder; Harry and Malfoy were still grinning happily; and Blaise Zabini caught her eye from his position at the Slytherin table. He smiled and gave her a quick wink.

She wasn't the most popular witch at Hogwarts, and she was constantly being teased for her eccentric ideas and beliefs. Everyone thought she was stupid and silly for having them.

Harry and Malfoy did not believe her when she first told them they were compatible, and now they were happily together on the other side of the room.

When she reached the Ravenclaw table, she couldn't help but smile with a small amount of smugness. She knew that compared to her peers she was strange and unusual, but today, thanks to Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy, she was completely vindicated.

The End

Well, that's the end of this fic. I hope you enjoyed it. Most importantly, I hope you enjoyed this epilogue more than the epilogue in The Deathly Hallows. Lol.

I wrote it for Oliver, who reminded me that we should all try to be a little more like Luna; kind, unique and indifferent to what other people think of us.

However, I would still love to hear what you thought of my story, so please review! :)